Disabled Talk

Thin (TW: eating disorders)

Thin is an HBO documentary directed by Lauren Greenfield that documents the lives of four young women with eating disorders, and their time in a Florida treatment centre.  Non-judgemental and informative, this programme is an excellent look at life in an eating disorder clinic, the treatment available, and living with an eating disorder.

The entire documentary is available on youtube, however, please note that it is extremely triggering.  If you feel the documentary might be unsafe for you to watch, please don’t risk it.

Thin

Animated Minds: Experiencing Mental Illness

Animated Minds is a unique project that uses animated shorts with voiceovers to share and examine different forms of mental illness and how they are experienced.

The shorts focus on a range of mental illnesses and symptoms, from anxiety and agoraphobia, to eating disorders and psychosis. 

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The Light Bulb Thing

A woman’s story about becoming more manic, as she soars to the heights of euphoria, floating on the winds of disinhibition. And then, without warning, we see the fall to despair, to a dark world without meaning; an inner world of depression made all the worse by the still fresh memory of euphoria. This is the world of manic depression…

Fish on a Hook

Mike suffers from panic attacks and agoraphobia, and often finds it difficult to get out of the house. As he describes in visual detail what it’s like to suffer from debilitating anxiety, we witness the trials and tribulations of how even a journey to the supermarket can be “like a bloody nightmare.”

Becoming Invisible tw: eating disorders

Violent nightmares, suicidal wishes and an inability to live in your own skin. This film explores the dynamics that can drive young people to develop eating disorders beyond talk of the Size Zero culture and peer pressure.

Sharing Experiences

Between Myself and Them: Stories of Disability and Difference - Ed. by Carol Krause, 2005

“Between myself and them is a book about disablity like you’ve never heard it discussed before.  Gutsy, frank, provocative, and even confrontation, the twenty-three contributors to this first-person anthology trace the myriad of feelings and experiences that go along with growing up disabled across different genders, cultures, classes, and sexualities.”

Between Myself and Them is an anthology of experiences with disability ranging from cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, to multiple sclerosis.  Each story is told in their own words, either in an essay or interview format.  The book focuses on the experiences of those with physically disabilities, along with one contributer with a mental illness.

You can read a fair amount of Between Myself and Them on google books.

Beyond Crazy - Julia Nunes, Scott Simie, 2002

“Beyond Crazy takes us beyond the barriers of fear and stigma to meet real Canadians from all walks of life who have encountered mental illness. They tell stories of what it is like to journey to the edge of the abyss and back again, of what it is like to suffer deep psychosis or depression, a misdiagnosis, a life-threatening eating disorder, the suicide of a loved one. And they tell stories of hope recovered, of finding the road back to wellness, of families made stronger than ever.”

Beyond Crazy contains stories of personal experiences with mental illness, edited and compiled by Nunes and Simie.  

You can read a fair amount of Beyond Crazy on google books.